OCTOBER 22, 2006

Philippe wins Surfers race, Bourdais wins title

Sebastien Bourdais made history in Surfers Paradise when he won his third consecutive Champ Car title with an eighth placed finish in the Australian race. The only other man to win three consecutive National Championships in the United States was Ted Horn in 1946, 1947 and 1948. His title rival AJ Allmendinger hit a wall on lap 19 and retired. Bourdais and Will Power later collided and the Australian retired but Bourdais kept going, later receiving a penalty for the incident. Despite this he was still able to finish eighth to get the lead he needed to win the title with one race to spare.

The adventures meant that France's Nelson Philippe came through to win for the Hola Viva Mexico team ahead of Mario Dominguez and Alex Tagliani. Paul Tracy ended up fourth ahead of Andrew Ranger and Bruno Junqueira.